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February 23, 2012

Some people were already surprised that Yefet was one of those referees who did not get a match by UEFA in February, as he was actually one of the referees from UEFA First Group nominated to referee a EL K.O. stage match.

Officials from the Israel Football
Association and the Referees Union are keeping close tabs on
developments in the tax evasion case against senior Israeli referee Alon
Yefet. A recent report in Haaretz that the Tax Authority intends to
indict Yefet over his failure to pay tax on overseas earnings was
greeted with shock and consternation in both organizations. The
chairman of the Referees Union, Benzion Salman, said that he hoped
Yefet, like the dozen other referees who were found to owe taxes, would
be able to reach some agreement with the Tax Authority and avoid having
an indictment filed. “Obviously, ignorance of the law is no excuse”,
Salman told Haaretz, “but according to what several referees have told
me, they did not know that tax was not deduct

Alon Yefet, FIFA referee, classified as First Group referee by UEFA

ed at the source. I would
like to believe that if the Tax Authority has reached an agreement with
most of them, they recognize that they are guilty of nothing more than
making an innocent error and not of systematically evading taxes”.
Salman described Yefet as “one of the top international referees”,
stating, “Our decision − despite the report that he is facing an
indictment − is to allow him to continue to officiate matches until a
final decision is made. Alon knew that the Tax Authority is planning to
indict him and he still took charge of one of the toughest games in
Israeli soccer − Beitar Jerusalem against Maccabi Tel Aviv. He ran the
game perfectly and there were no signs that he was distracted or under
any kind of pressure. We will continue to assign him to games as usual”,
Salman added. “At the moment, there is no question of suspending him.
When we get all the details of the charges from the Tax Authority, we
will reconsider our position”.
The Tax Authority, meanwhile, is to submit a summary of the arrangement
it has reached with 13 referees to the Israel Football Association and
the Israel Basketball Association. If, as reported in Haaretz, it is
proven that the 13 referees named in the report paid an out-of-court
settlement to the Tax Authority, the respective associations are likely
to suspend them, pending internal disciplinary action. However, since
the 13 officials are considered the top soccer and basketball referees
in Israel, it is unlikely that they will be expelled or suspended for
any length of time.

February 22, 2012

The following column has been written by one of the most intense followers of this blog, by Chefren from Italy.

He focuses on one of the biggest issues in modern football that still affects matches and refereeing.

In the
fascinating world of refereeing, one of the most controversial issues is
certainly the “ghost goal”.

During a
football match, what is the difference between this situation and other
situations like fouls, incidents and so on? Simply said. This is the only case in
which the referee has to take a decision based on an objective assessment, and
not, as it happens in the case of other fouls and infractions, just on his
discretion. A ball has crossed the line
or it has not, easily said, but very difficult to see. You cannot have a different opinion, from one referee to another. This is
the crucial point. We can discuss about a foul, a wrong offside (even it’s just
of millimetres) and so on, but we cannot discuss about a goal missed by the
referee. It is a big mistake, and it could
affect the match and its result in a heavy way.

The referee team (assistant
referees and additional ones) cannot be
blamed: the human eye is powerful, but it cannot perform miracles. Some people try
to justify and minimize this problem, they always say that football is a
fascinating world based on humane actions and errors where everything might
happen. So – they say – one should accept ghost goals with fairness. To my
mind, this is a big mistake, because we can easily solve the problem: We can take
a look at a famous case of “ghost goal”, which happened at the last FIFA World
Cup, as everyone will remember.

1966: the famous "Wembley goal"....

The latest and
most resounding incident was in fact the unseen goal scored by Frank Lampard,
in the knouckout round of 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. It was the
round-of-16 match between England and Germany. England would have drawn 2-2 with
this goal, but after the goal had not been given, they lost the match by 4-1. Referee Jorge
Larrionda was forced to leave the tournament along with his assistant referees.
It was a needed decision, but not a totally fair one. FIFA put the blame on the assistant referee,
but we should underline that this was not a correct behaviour. Helping the referee team in the “ghost goal”-case
is absolutely needed, especially nowadays. After mentioning this example, it is also
useful to lay further emphasis on the fact that technology can and must be introduced in the pitch. Electronic tools
on the goal line could solve this long-standing issue.

....and 44 years later, history has repeated

According to the latest news we have received,
FIFA is ready to introduce this new experiment, but for now we have only heard words.
I hope, for a better football, to see this needed technology being applied in
the pitch – as soon as possible! We
would certainly experience a better football. The technological support in this
case would not undermine the authority of the referee in the match at all. Many
referees, according to several interviews, are absolutely willing to receive that support!

February 16, 2012

Referee Stuart Attwell has been taken from the select group of Premier League officials after a
four-year spell dogged by controversy.

Attwell
became the youngest referee to officiate in the top flight when, aged
25, he took charge of a match between Blackburn and Hull in 2008 after
one season in the Football League.

However, a month later he awarded a 'ghost' goal in a Championship match between Watford and Reading.

In 2010, he awarded Liverpool a
controversial goal against Sunderland at Anfield when the away team
believed the ball to be dead.

Most
recently, he came under fire in December for sending off former Bolton
defender Gary Cahill for denying Tottenham's Scott Parker a goalscoring
opportunity, despite the offence taking place near the halfway line.

The red card was rescinded. Attwell, 29, will return to the national list to continue his development in the Football League.

In
a statement, Professional Game Match Officials Limited general manager
Mike Riley backed Attwell to improve as a referee and return to the top
level.

'Throughout his
career in the Select Group Stuart has demonstrated great courage and
mental strength in responding to the challenges that he has faced,'
Riley said.

'He has shown
many of the attributes of a top flight official but the Premier League
is an exacting standard with huge demands. It is imperative that PGMOL
deliver the best officiating possible to the English game at all levels.

'This is not the end for Stuart. There are several match officials who have returned to the National List and benefited from it.'Stuart
has a high level of maturity and responsibility and I'm convinced that
he has a long-term future as a referee at the very highest level.'PGMOL sincerely hopes to be welcoming Stuart back to the Select Group in the future.'Attwell
said: 'I have learned a great deal from my involvement in the Select
Group over the last four years and I am now looking forward to building
on that valuable experience.'I
strongly believe I have a lot to offer refereeing, and I now look
forward with commitment and enthusiasm to the new challenge that I am
undertaking.'This is supported by a determination to continue my career development, and return to the Select Group as soon as possible.'

Attwell spent only one year on the national list prior to his promotion to the select group four years ago.He made his Premier League debut as a referee in the 1-1 draw between Blackburn and Hull in August 2008.Following
the Watford-Reading game, further controversies followed when he was
accused of 'losing control' of a Derby-Nottingham Forest derby, having
disallowed two Derby goals in the final stages, booking eight players
and sending off Forest's Lewis McGugan.He
has also attracted the ire of Wigan manager Roberto Martinez, who
accused the referee of lying about his reasons for sending off Gary
Caldwell in April 2010, while Stoke's Danny Higginbotham claimed Attwell
could be too easily influenced by players.Later
that year, he awarded Liverpool a highly controversial goal against
Sunderland. He had awarded the Black Cats a free-kick inside their own
half and Michael Turner touched the ball back to Simon Mignolet,
apparently for the goalkeeper to take the set-piece.But Attwell ruled the ball active, allowing Fernando Torres to steal it and set up Dirk Kuyt to finish into an empty net.

After Byron Moreno's conviction in the last year, the next referee who participated at 2002 FIFA World Cup has been put into jail, however, for a completely different reason:

The most famous Chinese referee, Jun Lu, who had joined the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney and who had overseen two matches at 2002 FIFA World Cup in Japan/South Korea (see his statistics here), was sentenced by the Chinese justice for having fixed seven matches in the Chinese league for money (810.000 Yuan = 98.000 €). He has to go to prison for five years and six months.

Due to his good international reputation, he was mostly called "golden whistle".

Furthermore, Huang Junjie and Wan Daxue have been arrested as well.

The conflict that is linked with these convictions has been apparent in China for three years; the lawsuit counts to the most intense in football's history ever.

February 14, 2012

The appointments UEFA had to make during the last days are more important than others are. They indicate who will assist the main referees,we already know, at EURO 2012:

According to a source, UEFA applies a certain procedure in this K.O. stage with regard to the assistant referees' nominations: if a referee who will join EURO 2012 gets a CL match, he will be assisted by the planned referees for the final competition. If a referee considered as no.2 or 3 of a certain country gets a EL match, he will be assisted by the planned AR2 along with the Reserve AR. An example? David Fernández Borbalán has been appointed for EL with Juan Carlos Yuste Jiménez and Jesús Calvo Guadamuro. This means that UEFA has selected Yuste Jiménez as AR2 for the final tournament in Poland and Ukraine at Velasco's (and probably Alonso Fernández' side) while Calvo Guadamuro is the reserve AR for the finals.

Therefore, a closer look on the appointments UEFA made can be useful.

UEFA Champions League

It will be a special match tonight for the Italian Paolo Tagliavento (r.). After having recently been promoted to UEFA Elite Group, he will make his CL K.O. stage bow when overseeing Olympique Lyon against APOEL Nicosia. The Cypriots are surely the biggest surprise in the pool of teams that have reached the K.O. stage of this season's edition of the most popular league of the world, whereas Lyon can be lucky that they have even the opportunity to listen to the CL anthem this year again. What happened in Zagreb was for many nothing else than falsification of the match, for less it was a normal football match, also Platini felt called to be one of this small group.

Tagliavento already knows Stade de Gerland: he accompanied Nicola Rizzoli in Olympique Lyon - Real Madrid on Matchday 4. The same counts for one of his assistant referees: Renato Faverani surely does not have the best associations with this stadium. In addition to him, Luca Maggiani joins the team as AR2. Here we can apply the same procedure again: The planned AR2 of Rizzoli's EURO Team assists another referee from the same country along with the reserve AR, therefore, Andrea Stefani should be the AR1 of the EURO team, Renato Faverani the AR2 and Maggiani will potentially remain in standby.Luca Banti and Andrea de Marco will complete the team as Additional Assistant Referees, Paolo Valeri will function as Fourth Official. Juan Antonio Fernandez Marin from Spain will observe the Italian team.My bet: 0-0

The most surprising appointment was probably Craig Thomson's nomination for Leverkusen - Barcelona. Of course, it is a good test for the EURO team, but Thomson has already refereed a match with Leverkusen's involvement, it was MD3, the match between Leverkusen and Valencia was also played in the same stadium. Alasdair Ross and Derek Rose seem to be the names who will appear in Poland/Ukraine, too. While Steven McLean has lost his slot as AAR - he will now act as Fourth Official - William Collum and Euan Norris assist Thomson as AARs. Surely no surprise.

Thomson in Serbia, minutes before the match was abandoned

Taking all his performances and especially the amount of matches he received in 2011 into consideration, one has to emphasize that Thomson has really developed to a very good ELITE referee. I am not sure how much he will get in this CL season, his big advantage is that no Scottish team will probably be involved in the next decade's UCL semifinals. One thing is clear: UEFA needs (at least) six referees they will not appoint anymore after the Group Stage of EURO as main referees. Guys like Thomson have to show something, so he should use the chance today; Horst Brummeier from Austria will expect a lot from the team.My bet: 1-1

Jonas Eriksson from Sweden will have presumedly no problem with the weather conditions in St. Petersburg. Even though most parts of Europe are finally defrosting, the thermometers still show a temperature of -13°C in St.Petersburg. The multimillionaire from Sigtuna will be able to cope with that. To my mind, Eriksson was the best referee of the CL group stage, he got the highest amount of matches (4), although this was due to an injury of Strömbergsson.

from left: Eriksson, Wittberg, Fernandez Marin, ..., Klasenius.

Unfortunately, Mathias Klasenius will not run his lines in this match which also means that he is not considered as AR at EURO. Klasenius has accompanied Eriksson for years, joined several youth tournaments and - one has to say that - better performances than the selected AR2 Fredrik Nilsson who did not make good impressions in e.g. Bayern - Villarreal. Anyway, Stefan Wittberg's participation at EURO should not be in danger, the last "remnant" of the great generation "Frisk" and "Fröjdfeldt". Eriksson has established himself at the peak of UEFA refereeing, I think that he can reach a lot this year, perhaps even a final appointment in UEFA Europa League or at least a semifinal. Zenit St.Petersburg - Benfica is probably not such a big match like others, but two teams which are on one level and which will do everything to win guarantee a good match. Daniel Stalhammar as Fourth Official, Markus Strömbergsson and Stefan Johannesson as AARs will assist him; the team is observed by the Czech Dr. Vaclav Krondl, certainly no "no-name" in the UEFA referee observers' pool.My bet: 1-2

Viktor Kassai at Wembley, cautioning Valdés

History sometimes repeats itself: Viktor Kassai's "opener match" into the new international season will be held again in Giuseppe Meazza, again it is the first leg of a round of 16 match (last year Internazionale - Bayern), but this time, AC Milan will be the hosts when meeting Arsenal London from "the Island". In the last year, this round of 16 match was enough for UEFA to appoint Kassai for the CL final, that cannot be the case this time, but without any doubt, the world's best referee of 2011 is one of the favourites for EURO 2012's final match. He will be assisted by Gabor Eros and György Ring. According to the statistics I have at hand (they go back until EURO 1984), Ring will be the youngest assistant referee ever at EURO finals aged 31 when the final competition will take place. Tamás Bognar has been appointed as Fourth Official while the two EURO AARs should be clear by now, too: István Vad, to my mind the biggest talent which is currently in UEFA's First Group, and Mihaly Fabián will be the men at the goallines.

Even though UEFA should actually know Kassai by hard, they have sent a committee member to evaluate him: the German Herbert Fandel will be the UEFA referee observer.My bet: 2-2

CONCACAF has selected ten referees and ten assistant referees who will oversee the qualifiers of 2012 Olympic Games in CONCACAF zone.

CONCACAF Olympic qualifying will begin March 22 in Nasvhille, Tennessee,
with a Group A doubleheader and continue the following night with a
Group B twin-bill in Carson, California. The confederation's two Olympic
qualifiers will be decided March 31 in Kansas City, Kansas, in the
semifinals, with the tournament finishing two days later. The nations' U23 selections will play the finals.